1. Field of the Invention
Choline is a kind of vitamin B complex, and acts as a partial agonist for acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, in neuromuscular junction. Negatively charged gold particles are formed by adhering alkaline COO− particles to a thin film of gold nanoparticles. When the negatively charged gold particles form ionic bonds with choline and then the resulting complexes are injected intravenously, the complexes migrate to an acetylcholine receptor in neuromuscular junction of a patient within 1 minute, and the choline binds to an acetylcholine-binding site thereby forming ionic bonds. The migrated nanoparticles enter the extracellular vestibule of the receptor together with a high concentration of the choline and migrate to a cysteine loop to thereby bind to the SH groups of the cysteine due to the strong binding force of gold-sulfur ions, and subsequently prevent from forming alpha subunit S═S bonds thereby blocking a flow of electric current through open ion gates. Accordingly, it is anticipated that the choline-gold nanoparticle complexes will perform a role of blocking the signal transmission in neuromuscular junction more strongly.
Since the action of cholinesterase is inhibited if reverse is administered, acetylcholine is not degraded and the acetylcholine bound to the receptor induces S═S reducing bonds in the cysteine loop. The negatively charged gold nanoparticles are come out of the ionic paths by repulsion since the gold-sulfur binding force is released due to the electric current generated by the reducing bonds.
2. Description of the Related Art
The signal transduction at neuromuscular junction is achieved by chemical means such as a neurotransmitter, or physical means such as an ionic path. Prior muscle relaxant is chemical means that blocks neuromuscular transmission since it has a similar structure to acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter, and thus binds competitively to acetylcholine and its receptor. If a method of blocking the flow and maintenance of electric current at ionic paths by using gold nanoparticles having a negative charge is used in combination with the prior means, the effect of muscle relaxing will be doubled. Further, such strong muscle relaxing effect can be applied as an anticonvulsant.